Cheese it, the Cops!

I always wondered what that phrase meant and where it came from...

Anyway, our local police have been making the news. It seems that two motorcycle police officers, who have conveniently retired before this item was leaked, were caught in an audit of daily log reports, to have copied each other's tickets in order to pad their ticket level. Of course, the police chief denies that there are no ticket quotas, they just have minimum performance standards... ya know, if it walks like a duck...

I have never lived in a city as violent as Colorado Springs, though I understand Denver is worse, and just be glad that we're not in Texas... I have never met a local policeman that I was impressed with, and two retired officers that I like a lot. But, if you start asking people you know for stories, you will end up collecting quite a lot about dishonest cops. You will find stories in every town about petty abuse of power and theft (want good drugs at your next party, invite a police officer!) But our local guys seem to have a long standing subculture that has been reinforced for over 20 years. Why they are allowed to become lazy and slothful in the performance of their duties is a subject for an investigation. Why someone wants to jeopardize their job over a lousy traffic ticket, I don't know. I do know that the new police chief, Richard Myers, is in over his level of competence. It must be demoralizing when your boss's wife is addicted to heroin...

My brother-in-law's theory for the amount of violence here is because this is a military town. We are surrounded by the Army and Air Force, and much of the population consists of retired military folk. Because of the war in Iraq, the military has lowered their standards and has welcomed recruits with criminal records. These people move here with their families, and members of those families continue in their criminal behavior. So we have innocent children being shot in drive-byes, soldiers murdering other soldiers and burglarizing the town. Gangs of adolescent and teenage kids go through townhouse parking lots breaking into and robbing cars, while their mentors sit safely out of the way in their cars. No wonder certain members of the community want to have more handguns on the street!

- yiquan